KiwiBuild is a risky business

The Housing Minister confirmed today that he is happy to put hardworking taxpayers’ money at risk for his KiwiBuild project, National’s Housing spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“Mr Twyford’s Cabinet paper states that his ‘KiwiBuild: Buying off the plans’ initiative involves the Crown taking risks if the housing market price fluctuates, regardless if it goes up or down,” Ms Collins says.

“From what we can see, the Crown could become an unsecured creditor in failed developments. This means, all the houses he has announced with the KiwiBuild label which have been subsidised by the taxpayer could be at risk.

“It is also confusing as to where the risk will lie if the KiwiBuild houses are not completed or if the developer goes bust during the build process. We can only assume that the Crown will have to foot the bill, adding more costs to their $2 billion KiwiBuild fund.

“Mr Twyford is totally screwing with the housing market by subsidising homes that were already being built by the private sector and labelling them as KiwiBuild.

“Under National, New Zealand was on track to build nearly 200,000 houses over the next six years and more houses were being built faster. The McLennan Development and Northcote Development have both been underway since 2016 and are delivering hundreds of houses.

“Labour had many years in opposition to come up with a housing policy to implement. All we have seen so far is a re-badging of National’s housing announcements, risking taxpayer money and broken promises for Mr Twyford’s KiwiFail project.”